Bioinformatics of Molecular Timetrees

宾夕法尼亚州立大学-大学公园被授予生物学家和其他科学家知识库的研究和发展奖（http://www.timetree.org）。该数据库将允许用户通过独特的分级搜索系统获得物种间分化的时间。在此之前，发散时间和时间树，即按时间缩放的进化树，已经分散在成千上万的出版物中，难以访问和使用。正在进行的研究和改进包括扩展所有可用生物物种的数据集，开发用于更有效的数据沉积和搜索的软件工具，以及图形界面。这个知识库满足了生物学家和其他科学家随时获取生命时间尺度信息的基本需求。了解物种何时出现以及何时从其他物种中分化出来，与了解物种之间的关系同样重要。它构成了我们星球上生命的基本核心信息。在时间树的许多用途中，它们可以帮助分子生物学家了解医学上重要基因的进化速度，为生态学家确定生态系统变化的原因提供见解，并使地质学家和气候学家能够更好地了解地球历史和气候随时间的变化。该项目是与亚利桑那州立大学合作开展的。

Pennsylvania State University- University Park is given an award for research and development of a knowledgebase for biologists and other scientists (http://www.timetree.org). The database will allow users to gain access to times of divergence among species through a unique hierarchical search system. Previously, divergence times and timetrees, which are evolutionary trees scaled to time, have been scattered among thousands of publications and difficult to access and use. Research and enhancements underway include an expanded data set of all available species of organisms, development of software tools for more efficient data deposition and searching, and a graphical interface. This knowledgebase fulfills a fundamental need for biologists and other scientists to have ready access to information on the timescale of life. Knowing when species arose and when they diverged from other species is as important as knowing how species are related. It forms the basic, core information about life on our planet. Among the many uses of timetrees, they can assist molecular biologists in understanding rates of evolution of medically important genes, provide insights for ecologists in determining the cause of ecosystem change, and enable geologists and climatologists to better understand changes in Earth history and climate over time. The project is a collaborative effort with Arizona State University.